Cooler for fitting on a control box

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to a cooler which can be fitted on the cover of a control box and connected thereto via an inlet aperture. The rain and dustproofing is improved by the invention in that an air inlet and outlet are fitted in the top of the cooler housing away from the control box, a cover component is connected to the top of the cooler housing at a distance therefrom, projects on all sides of the cooler housing and forms around it a downwardly open ventilation grille and is divided by partitions in the cover component into at least two chambers connected to the air inlet and outlet.

RELATED APPLICATION AND CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This application is related to PCT Application No. PCT/EP97/00661 havingan international filing date of Feb. 13, 1997, which designates at leastone country in addition to the United States and which claims priorityfrom German Application No. 196 09 796.7 filed Mar. 13, 1996. Forpriority purposes, this application claims the benefit of 35 USC 371.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The invention relates in general to a cooling device that can be placedon a covering wall of a control box, and more specifically to a coolingdevice that can be connected to a control box by means of an inletopening.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A control box that is surrounded on all sides by a shell is specified inDE295 19 260 U1. Such a cooling device which can be placed on the coverwall of the control box includes a roof element that, while connected tothe upper side of the cooling device, projects beyond the cooling devicehousing on all sides.

As a rule, cooling devices such as the one disclosed in DE 37 10 566 C2,have an air inlet in the side wall for fresh air, and an air outlet forwarmed exhaust air. The air inlet and air outlet are then covered bymeans of a ventilation screen. While such a ventilation screen is usefulin preventing moisture and dirt particles from entering the air inletonce the cooling device is in operation, it offers no guarantee thatmoisture and dirt particles will not penetrate into the control boxthrough the air conditioner while the control box and air conditionerare being set up in the field.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

An object of the invention is to provide a cooling device that overcomessome of the problems and shortcomings of the prior art.

Another object of the invention is to provide a cooling device thatimproves the protection afforded the cooling device and the control boxwith regard to moisture, in particular rain or the like, and particlesof dirt. How these and other objects are accomplished will becomeapparent from the following descriptions and from the drawings.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This invention involves a cooling device that is connected to a coverwall of a control box by an inlet opening in such a manner that thehousing of the upper side of the cooling device that faces away from thecontrol box is provided with both an air inlet and an air outlet. A roofelement covers the upper side of the cooling device. Said roof element,which is separated by a space from the cooling device housing, projectsbeyond the cooling device housing on all sides thereby forming acircumscribing ventilation slot that is open in a downward direction. Atleast two chambers, which are connected to both the air inlet andoutlet, are formed in the roof element by means of separating sheetmetal.

In one embodiment of the invention, the lateral walls of the coolingdevice housing can be closed completely. In such an embodiment, rain andthe like drips off over the edge of the roof element. Also, the airinlet and the air outlet are covered by the roof element thus,protecting them from various forms of precipitation as well as dirtparticles. Greater protection from the elements can also be provided bycovering at least the air inlet with a ventilation screen.

In yet another embodiment, protection from rain is improved in that theroof element is provided with a circumscribing downwardly-inclined edgethat overlaps at least one of the lateral walls of the cooling device.Rain runoff is thereby simplified by having the roof element feature ahorizontally oriented cover plate that transitions into the edge bymeans of inclined transition sections that drop off. Furthermore, thecorners of the roof element are beveled in the area of the roof edge andthe transition sections.

In still another embodiment, the design of the cooling device is adaptedto the cross sectional shape of the control box and is characterized bythe fact that the cooling device housing is rectangular in cross sectionwith a substantially centered separating wall that is oriented parallelto the narrow sides of the cooling device housing. In such anembodiment, the air inlet and outlet chambers are positioned one behindthe other in the direction of the longitudinal sides of the coolingdevice housing.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the formation of theventilation slot and the air inlet and outlet chambers in the area ofthe roof element results from the roof element being connect to thecooling device housing through the use of spacer elements that arearranged in the corner areas of the upper side of the cooling devicehousing.

A complete separation of the air inlet and outlet chambers is achievedby having the separating sheet metal supported on the upper side of thecooling device housing while being adapted to the inner cross section ofthe roof element.

The invention is explained in more detail on the basis of theexemplified embodiment shown in the drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the cooling device housing.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The cooling device housing 10 receives the components of the coolingdevice in the known manner and is connected to the suction openingprovided in the floor of the cooling device housing 10. The constructionof the air conditioning device can be carried out in the known manner.Details of such a device are not shown here, since they are not ofimportance to the present invention.

According to the invention, as shown in FIG. 1, an air inlet 11 and anair outlet 12 are provided in the upper side 13 of the cooling devicehousing 10. In such an embodiment, at least the air inlet 11 is capableof being provided with a ventilation screen in order to improveprotection from rain and dust.

In one embodiment of the invention, the upper side of the cooling devicehousing 10 is covered by a roof element 20 that is fastened to thecooling device housing 10 with some spacing, e.g., using spacer elementsin the area of the corners. The roof element 20 comprises a horizontalcover plate 28 that transitions into a circumscribing, vertical edge 21by means of a downwardly inclined transition section 29. The edge 21 ofthe attached roof element 20 partially overlaps at least one of thelateral walls of the cooling device housing 10, but maintains acircumscribing ventilation slot that is open in the downward direction.

In another embodiment, the roof element 20 is subdivided into twochambers 24 and 25 by means of separating sheet metal 23, such that thechamber 24 is positioned above the air inlet 11 and the chamber 25 ispositioned above the air outlet 12. In such embodiment the separatingwall 23 parallel to the narrow sides of the cooling device housingsubdivides the roof element 20 such that both chambers 24 and 25, andthe air inlet 11 and the air outlet 12, are positioned one behind theother in the direction of the longitudinal sides of the cooling devicehousing 10.

As the arrows 26 show, fresh air can reach chamber 24 and cooling devicehousing 10 by means of air inlet 11. The warmed exhaust air exiting thecooling device housing 10 reaches the chamber 25 by means of air outlet12 and can flow from this on three sides, as is shown by arrows 27.

Although the cross sectional shape of the cooling device housing 10 andthe roof element 20 can be designed in a different manner. Thesubdivision of the roof element 20 by means of the separating sheetmetal 23 into chambers 24 and 25 must always be carried out such thatone chamber 24 is connected to the air inlet 11 and the other chamber 25is connected to the air outlet 12.

For reasons of appearance, the transition sections 29 and the edge 21can incline in the area of the corners of the roof element 20.

The separating sheet metal 23 can be adapted to the inner cross sectionof the roof element 20 so that it can rest on the upper side 13 of thecooling device housing 10 in order to completely separate the chambers24 and 25 from each other.

While the principles of the invention have been shown and described inconnection with but a few embodiments, it is to be understood clearlythat such embodiments are by way of example and are not limiting.

What is claimed:
 1. In a cooling device capable of fitting on a coverwall of a control box wherein said cooling device is connected to thecontrol box by an inlet opening, the improvement comprised of:thecooling device having a housing with an upper side that faces away fromthe control box; the upper side includes an air inlet and an air outlet;a plurality of spacer elements connect a roof element to the upper sideof the cooling device housing; the roof element projects beyond thecooling device housing on all sides thereby forming a circumscribingventilation slot that is open in a downward direction; and a separatingwall separates the roof element into least two chambers in such a mannerso as to allow the first chamber to connect to the air inlet and thesecond chamber to the air outlet.
 2. The cooling device of claim 1wherein the housing has lateral walls and the roof element has acircumscribing edge that is angled downwardly and partially overlaps atleast one of the lateral walls of the cooling device housing.
 3. Thecooling device of claim 1 wherein:the cooling device housing has twolongitudinal sides and two narrow sides; the separating wall isrectangular in cross section is approximately centered parallel to thenarrow sides of the cooling device housing; and the first and secondchambers are positioned on opposite sides of the separating sheet metalin the direction of the longitudinal sides.
 4. The cooling device ofclaim 1 wherein:the cooling device housing has two longitudinal sidesand two narrow sides; the separating wall is rectangular in crosssection is approximately centered parallel to the longitudinal sides ofthe cooling device housing; and the first and second chambers arepositioned on opposite sides of the separating sheet metal in thedirection of the narrow sides.
 5. The cooling device of claim 1wherein:spacer elements are arranged in the corner areas of the upperside; and the spacer elements connect the roof element to the coolingdevice housing.
 6. The cooling device of claim 1 wherein the roofelement has a horizontally oriented cover plate with inclined transitionsections located near its outer edge.
 7. The cooling device of claim 6wherein the corners of the roof element are beveled near the edge andthe transition sections.
 8. The cooling device of claim 1 wherein at theleast air inlet is provided with a ventilation screen.
 9. The coolingdevice of claim 1 wherein the separating wall is adapted to the innercross section of the roof element and is supported on the upper side ofthe cooling device housing.